


Squirrel Hunter

by Maimat



Series: Hunting and Gathering [5]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-04
Updated: 2013-03-04
Packaged: 2017-12-04 06:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/707554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maimat/pseuds/Maimat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She liked to pretend to be a wild animal, hiding and sneaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Squirrel Hunter

She liked watching people. She liked watching some people more than others and she knew a lot more than anyone gave her credit for. For example, she knew how not to be seen. She liked to pretend to be a wild animal, hiding and sneaking. A panther, or maybe a ninja. Or a hunter. The two new men who came up from the road were interesting. She didn't see much of them, and her mom made sure to tell her to stay out of their way, but she didn't explain why. The older one she didn't want to get near anyway, he had a mean looking face. The younger one was some kind of squirrel hunter; she never heard of anyone hunting squirrel before, but they tasted okay in stew. She liked his crossbow. It reminded her of Davy Crocket, but she thought probably Davy Crocket would have been cleaner and talked more. And she couldn't imagine the squirrel hunter wearing a coonskin hat either. But otherwise, they were kind of the same.

The older one wasn't around. Sophia crawled under the bush and watched the hunter cleaning his crossbow. He sat on the ground with the bow balanced across his legs, using an old rag that might have at one time been a sleeve. He snapped something into place and then sat really still for a second.

Then he glared right at her.

Sophia held her breath and stayed very still. Maybe he only heard something and didn't see her. She didn't dare move or back up because then he would for sure see something moving, and what if he mistook her for a squirrel? She closed her eyes and concentrated on being invisible, and tried not to think about what getting shot with a crossbow feels like.

When she opened her eyes again he was back to cleaning. He worked slow and careful, taking his time. Maybe she could find a crossbow like that and be a hunter too. She already knew how to creep up on things. She would be an awesome hunter. He finished and set the crossbow aside and stretched, leaning back and tilting his head back to look up at the sky. Sophia looked up, there wasn't anything interesting in the sky. He got up and knelt beside an old dufflebag, sorting through it for a second, looking for something. He pulled out a little box. For a moment he just looked at it and turned it around in his hand, and he looked back in her direction and glared again.

Sophia held her breath.

He looked away and tossed the box in the bushes right by her face. He grabbed his crossbow and walked off in the other direction down towards the lake.

Sophie grabbed the box. Smarties. She turned it around in her hands. It was unopened. She could smell the chocolate inside. She tore it open and dumped a handful into her palm and shoved them all in her mouth as quick as she could and then stopped half way through. She closed up the little box, and crept out of the bush. No one was around but she didn't intend to snoop. She looked at the duffle bag on the ground. She unzipped it just a tiny bit and slid the box back inside.

She heard her mom calling her name and quickly zipped it back up and ran back towards the other tents. She wondered what he would think to find it back in his bag later? She smiled thinking about it, boy would he be surprised!


End file.
